User Feedback: Do you maximize your windows?
This is really just a curiosity post I’m afraid. I bring you no new insight on anything whatsoever.
Do you maximize the various windows you have open? Or do you prefer to keep windows at various smaller sizes?
I’ve got dual 20″ (widescreen) monitors and maximizing windows can be a bit overkill for some things. I’m finding myself just keeping windows in smaller, modular sizes instead of just having them take up the whole screen.
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I don’t maximize all windows, but I always have my browser maxmized. I find it too distracting to be able to see my desktop and the browser, or two browser windows at the same time.
So yes, I maximize my windows. I’m also using a Macbook where the screen isn’t huge but it’s resolution is enough to allow me to have two browser windows open but I choose to keep one visible at a time.
I use a 17″ monitor in tandem with my 12″ iBook screen. I’ll often keep a web browser maximized on the smaller screen, while everything else (unmaximized) goes on the bigger one. I probably wouldn’t maximize anything if it weren’t for the small size of the iBook screen.
Nope, never. I like having several things going at once, and while I keep other applications hidden, I like having a dedicated “area” for each app. And on my 20″ monitor a maxed out window is way too big…
With my 13″ iBook, it’s no surprise that I maximize almost all my windows. I think the only softwares that I use daily that I do not maximize are Mail and iTunes. All the rest, though, maximized: Firefox, Word, iCal, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband, etc.
I don’t maximize any window. I’ve got an 19″ widescreen tft and I don’t like the look of maximized windows ;)
I maximise everything, and I always have done! I thought everybody did, but apparently not. Its like an OCD…
I have 12 inch PowerBook and have to maximize the windows, though sometimes manage to squeze some. I wouldn’t maximize if i had a bigger screen. Also noticed that Windows users have more windows maximized the Mac users. )
I have a 20″ LCD, and I maximize most windows: Safari, Xcode, iCal, Finder, etc.
What I don’t like about Apple’s zoom button is that it only fits the current window contents. When using Safari, for example, the window contents change all the time, so then the window is often too small. I don’t want to hit the zoom button all the time.
I maximize — however, one thing to consider is that I keep my AIM buddy list docked on the right hand side of my monitor. I’ve got (2) 19″ side-by-side at work. One always have PhotoShop (or some other program) open full screen and the other is where I keep web browsing, AIM and email.
I have a 12″ G4 PB and a 20″ G5 iMac. I often need large windows for spreadsheets or DNA sequence alignments. So, I have a need to use ‘maximize’ on both machines. I’d use it more, except that it DOESN’T DO WHAT IT SHOULD.
Maximize doesn’t even maximize to the largest window possible in many applications – just to the largest window used previously. This is especially true for Apple Apps and the finder. Sometimes, it even moves the window partially off screen after two clicks. Useless!
Try viewing pdf docs in Preview and click on the red button a couple times. The window gets smaller! What’s the point?
So, if I don’t manually stretch the window to the size I want – I can’t have a maximum window.
This is one thing Windoze does better, IIRC. I click on the ‘Maximize’ bar in NT or XP, and the screen gets filled up. That’s the way it SHOULD work.
I also wish maximise would maximise to fill the screen. I know its supposed to be clever and maximise to the maximum contents…… Even something like command-maximise would be nice. Its the biggest thing I still prefer on windows ( that and the menu short cut key combos, )
“Maximize”? What’s that? :) hehe
But in all seriousness, no, never. The one windows I guess you could say I have ‘maximized’ is Safari on my 12″ PB but that’s just because that’s how wide websites usually are, designed for 1024×768.
Garageband also tends to open up very big, so I just leave it at it’s size.
The most ‘maximizing’ I do other than that is keeping things as TALL as the screen but never as wide. Most types of documents I deal with have more information ‘lengthwise’ rather than ‘widthwise’ such as code, PDFs, school assignments and so on.
Umijin,
There is no ‘maximize’ button so the behavior you’re looking for simply isn’t there. The ‘ ‘ button is actually ‘zoom’ and is supposed to fit the contents of the window, many developers don’t use it right and, agreed, it’s kind of flaky sometimes but it is _not_ supposed to ‘maximize to the largest window possible’. So windows doesn’t do this ‘better’, it does it ‘different’, although you can of course argue which one does ‘window sizing’ better if you want :). You can’t find all kinds of information on this (positive and negative) on google and such. Probably even on older TAB articles :)
No.
I have two monitors at work and I lay out all the windows overlapping one another. I have to juggle among windows and ALT-TAB or taskbar just don’t do it for me.
Sorry, I don’t particularly care what old TAB articles say. This Mac user since 1988 says that Windoze does it better.
The MacOS red button SHOULD maximize to the largest window possible (given the same magnification of text)- period. Otherwise it’s useless. There is nothing ‘smart’ about it.
And funny, that Mac Office Apps do it correctly (AFAIK)- so I guess that MS does it right on the Mac.
It depends on the application. I maximize TextMate, Photoshop, Navicat and a few others using Virtue to give each maximized app its own space without blocking anything else.
Just about everything else is in its own window that is sized to fit the task at hand.
I usually keep most apps with a lot of text maximized…itunes, rss reader (vienna), text editor (Text Wrangler). Everything else, I keep them in various sizes. I almost never maximize finder windows. I’m on a 13″ macbook.
Umijin,
Ok so you ‘like’ it better. It has nothing to do with which one is better. I’m sure you can find someone who likes the current functionality just fine. Like me, for example. Maximizing windows is useless to me. It’s all a matter of opinion and it makes no difference how long you’ve been using a Mac. I’ve only started using a Mac in August of 2005 and I say Apple does it better, who is right? Neither, it’s personal opinion.
“The MacOS red button SHOULD maximize to the largest window possible…”
Ok so first of all the RED button (I thought you said you were a long time Mac user…?) is the close button… and it SHOULD do whatever Apple wants it to do since it’s their software. And as I said above ‘maximizing to the largest possible window’ is entirely useless to me.
And about Mac Office apps, well, like I also said in my post MANY developers don’t use the zoom buttons effectively and that is unfortunate but there is nothing ‘correct’ about making a window take up the whole screen, it’s a massive waste of space as far as i’m concerned.
Oh wait wait. I just opened a new document in word and hit the GREEN zoom button… It makes the document window SMALLER, to 100% zoom in page layout view. Press it again and it makes it slightly too bit, underlapping the formatting pallete. So infact MS does it better than many 3rd party developers on the mac but still not ‘right’ according to you.
I don’t tend to maximise windows on my external screen but on my iBook I maximse safari and mail etc. The only apps I maximise on my external display are photoshop and illustrator with the pallets on my iBooks screen.
I had OMD (Obsessive Maximus Disorder) before I came to Mac. Everything in every version of Windows was maximized where possible. Now however I don’t. I like things the same as they were by default, the same size as iTunes by default (Mail for example) or Finder windows as I need them.
More points for the “Windows: Max, Mac: What *I* like” crowd.
I had an ad come up in the xml feed… What’s up with that? I might have to stop reading your feed.
Blair, we’ve had ads in the feed for over 3 months now, and also, the comments are the place to air your thoughts on off-topic things. Shoot us an email if you’ve got things to say that pertain to the site. Thanks.
“And funny, that Mac Office Apps do it correctly (AFAIK)- so I guess that MS does it right on the Mac.” From experience with M$ programms i’m guessing they did it by accident.
But seriously, when i use a mac(quite often but not at home), i don’t maximize anything but the browser, i maximize programs only when i really need to concentrate on a task. Same thing when i use windows actualy.
Maybe the first few days I had a Mac (before Expose) I maximized, but then I realized that there wasn’t much of a point.
Windows had a clunky GUI for non maximized windows, and OS X seems to be built on multitasking. I love being able to see parts of all my windows (on small screens) or even all of my windows on large screens.
On windows I tend to maximize sometimes, but definately not on OS X
Funny thing I noticed when reading this article that I don’t maximize on my MacMini but do when running windows on my PC using the same 17″… go figure.
NEVER. no matter the size of the monitor…
When I use windows I keep everything maximised except Windows Explorer windows because it just seems much cleaner to me. But with Mac OS X, I don’t feel the need for everything to be maximized; I think this is due to fact that the menubar is always in the same spot. I have a MacBook Pro 15.4 and keep AdiumX docked on the left side, so most other things are on the right of that.
It depends on what application you’re talking about? Web browsing? Photoshop?
When I’m web browsing on my laptop screen (MacBook Pro) I usually have the window almost full-screen but I have my bookmarks open, so it ends up being around 900-1000 actual pixels of website real estate.
I always have Photoshop full-screen (or 2 screens when I’m in the office).
Mail I almost never have full-screen – it’s just overkill. I usually have it sized down to about 60-70% of what you would call full-screen. Other applications like IM and calculator get spread out around it so I can see them all at once without using Expose.
I got a 17″ Philips monitor plugging into a mini, and I don’t maximize my windows. Though all the windows are hidden in such a monitor and I always click my mouse for Exposé… except Adium, nothing virtually can be done in parallel.
this is the one thing i miss from WINDOWS XP.
I wish I could have a good old fashioned plain grey background, when photoshopping for example. yeah I know I can drag the windows etc, but its a pain in the butt. This is why I have to have a rather plain desktop image.
Gross. Never.
Well … Almost never.
I maximize iCal and iTunes typically. And within Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator I like to have one document’s space maximized over my screen unless I’m working on more than one document. Other’n that … No way. My 20″ iMac at home and the 23″ Studio Display at work would be full of mostly nothing if I maximized my windows.
To me the point of the large monitors is to have two documents up at a time: something that my 17in monitor PC cohorts at work see me doing on my Mac with its 23″ monitor … they can only drool and wish their time was used as well.
“I had OMD (Obsessive Maximus Disorder) before I came to Mac. Everything in every version of Windows was maximized where possible. Now however I don’t.”
It was exactly the same for me. I guess it’s the combination of the differences in the operating systems and me making the effort to change my habits because frankly that behaviour always seemed a bit too obsessive to me.
Generally, no. Occasionally though, to view a video – or when I’m writing and require a full screen “distraction free writing environment,” then I normally use WriteRoom, by Hog Bay Software, to accomplish this :). The answer to your query though, most often is no, and I’m using a 14-inch iBook.
~ Saving one animal won’t change the world, but the world will change for that one animal. ~
On my 20″ display I don’t. On my 12″ iBook all the time.
I have never maximized. I have a 12″ iBook G4… and I have never used the little green plus. I was confused what the maximizing was. I just tried it… I like the clever fit entire contents feature, honestly. I don’t care. As long as I can see all my stuff at once, I don’t need wasted space.
Nope. I have a 15″ PowerBook and I don’t feel the need to max out any windows. Maybe if I had a 12″ or a MacBook but the resolution on the 15″ is great.
I never maximise (
That’s a bit pants. If you try to bracket something in your post you see the opening bracker and nothing after. Pants I tell you, Pants.
Most windows I prefer to drag to the size I want them. Like Finder windows in list view that have many items, I’ll make the full height of the screen (minus menubar of course). Clicking the zoom button usually make them wider than I want. I only use 4 columns, but only like to keep the name and size visible. Same with Xcode – zooming makes them too wide.
Graphics apps, I tend to zoom the windows to full size, like Photoshop and Creator (although Creator thoughtfully has a pref to keep and right and/or bottom screen margin for palettes and Dock).
I always maximize.
Sadly, I’m still on Windows. 19″ monitor. Over here in Winland, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t maximize. Why would you waste screen width and look at everything in a smaller font than you had to?
Maybe once I get my MacBook I’ll change my tune.
I’ve always been curious about this as well. I was a hardcore Windows user up until about 8 months ago when I bought my iBook. I always maximized my windows on XP, but ever since I’ve switched to the Mac, I hardly ever maximize anything. When I hook up to my second 19″ monitor, I usually just maximize my browser there, and leave everything else in the laptop monitor.
I’m really not sure why I don’t maximize windows now. I’ve always thought it was a Mac thing, but I don’t know why. Perhaps it has to do with Windows having the Taskbar at the bottom, while Mac OS X doesn’t.
I have a 12″ Powerbook and I usually don’t maximize my windows except for some special situations like reading logfiles with long lines or browsing through my iTunes Library.
Nope. Even though I use a 12″ PowerBook, I never maximize my windows. I tend to view videos and movies full-screen, but that’s about it.
I don’t even maximize my browser. I always did on Windows and Linux, but it doesn’t quite seem right on the Mac.
I use a dual monitor setup with my iBook and I keep Safari, NewsFire, Mail, and a few others maximized for the built-in 1024×768 screen but not my external 1280×1024. Other than that I use smaller windows for most thing. The only things I really maximize on my 1280×1024 monitor is the Adobe CS2 apps and sometimes BBEdit when I am deep into some code.
There is no good maximize button like in windows/slackware etc etc, which actually fills up the whole screen as maximize should. Green button ( ) just fills top to bottom, not to the sides. That sucks.
Just one of the very small annoying things about my macbook pro, nothing serious though. :)
Other than Final Cut Express, I don’t run anything full-screen. When I first switched several years ago, I had been a mandatory maximizer in the PC world. I found the “zoom” button frustrating, as it did not operate like the Windows “maxmize” button. But within a few short weeks I realized that I actually prefer to not run everything full screen and started using less-than-full-screen sized windows even in Windows, which I still have to use at work…
I never maximize even though I use a 12in Powerbook. I might adjust slightly the size of the window, but better than being big is being the right proportion. One program that I use to help me out for window switching in addition to CMD Tab is Witch.
Never maximize anything, its the most counter productive thing you can do desktop wise. I’m not 5 years old I can concentrate on several things at once.
While I agree that maximizing everything with some apps can be counter productive, studies have shown that concentrating on several things at once is extremely counter productive itself.
I never maximise windows on my mac, even on this little new MacBook I prefer to see some borders around my windows. I was the same as every windows user I’ve ever shown the mac to when I first used macs – desperately trying to maximise just because I was used to only thinking about one thing at any one time. I can still do that if I want by shoving my other windows out the way/dock etc, but most of the time I’ll have em tiled with their own ‘side’ of the screen even though they overlap.
Now it drives me crazy when I have my windows tiled on my xp machine at work (pah) and someone comes along to show me something, leans over, and as a matter of course maximises the window I had open because they can’t cope with it not being maximised. Grr!
“studies have shown that concentrating on several things at once is extremely counter productive itself.”
Perhaps, and if this actually affects you then you can simply hit opt-cmd-H and it’s problem solved, no maximizing necessary.
“if this actually affects you then you can simply hit opt-cmd-H and it’s problem solved, no maximizing necessary.”
Or you can simply maximize! Both ways are good for different things, and different people.
True but ‘simply maximizing’ isn’t really that simple since you need to reposition the window and then manually make it bigger.
Why have a huge window with tons of wasted space (most likely anyway, like with web browsers, ftp clients, mail clients, etc) when you can just do it the way the os intended? I don’t see the big deal. If you are really that ‘distracted’ by multiple windows then just hide them.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t maximize things or that you can’t or anything… I’m just saying maybe you should try doing it the way apple intended becuase it works for lots of people and maybe if you put aside the maximizing fetish for a while you’ll see it’s better this way anyways :p
hmm… where to begin…
It all depends on the screen space i have. Working at 1024×768 yes. Always.
Above that it is dependant on what I’m doing. At work I’ve a 17″ single and work mainly with SAS (base, mainly coding), Excel, Word, Lotus Notes (*shudder*), FF etc. Everything but FF is maximised, and that’s mainly because the vast majority of sites i surf to cater for the 1024×768 or 800×600 crowd (a good thing) and thus it’s not needed. If i had duals I’d have two app’s open at maximum for the individual monitor…
I sometimes have 5 or 6 Safari windows with ten or so tabs out on each, but rarely more than 4/5 of the screen.
I do not like to make my windows very big because most of the time everything fits in the little defalt sized box that they start out with.
Yes, always… but not all programs.
Really miss it in OS X to have a standard (real) maximise button (like winxp has)…. Programs like MegaZoomer are a work around but not as well as MS has implemented it…
Apple: At least give the webbrowser such an option to full screen maximise!
p.s. Really find it annoying too that, in things like office for mac, there is no option to get just 1 program (and not 1000′s of little option menu’s)… Office for Windows works much better for me up till now (using parallels just to have a one-program office look :)
I usually maximize all windows on my 15” laptop screen and keep them smaller on two 20” monitors.
Working on dual screens 20″ and 15″PB, I usually have a browser window, iTunes, iChat, Mail, and NetNewsWire all open…so no, I don’t maximize. I’ll only “Maximize” if I’m working in Logic or other professional- or needs-full-foc us applications.
I don’t exactly maximize all the time, although I do maximize a good part of the time. Whenever I am working on something that gathers all my attention for a long time (Inkscape, a console with Emacs) I keep that application maximized.
Also, even when my windows are not maximized I like to keep them well stacked one against the other. I dislike windows to overlap — overlapped windows are a problem, not a feature –, so I try to find arrangements that will show most of them at the same time. Three elements are key in managing to do this:
1) Virtual Desktops. Unlike Windows does, in GNU/Linux most window managers support virtual desktops which will allow you a complete change of context within a keystroke. This allows you effectively to have (in my case) six desktops with the windows maximized or arranged the way you want. Since I dislike overlapping, I tend to keep a limited number of windows per desktop (one for the browser, one for the mail, one for the code, etc.). The advantage of this is that I don’t have the feeling of switching windows around (it’s psychological) and in teh rare cases that I do have more than one window per desktop, I don’t have to rearrange them around if I change context. Also, most pagers provide visual feedback on which windows are open, so it is easy to locate an app.
2) A good window manager that will allow window snapping (to the edges of the screen and among windows themselves) and window placement and resizing via keyboard. I use XFWM4 (XFCE 4′s window manager) hardly move my hands off the keyboard anytime, and this allows me to resize and rearrange my windows very fast and effectively.
3) Optionally, a window manager that will do automatic window placement to minimize overlapping. As far as I know, only Enlightenment (16) does this. It’s not perfect, but very handy at times. It *would* be perfect if it had also a good manual control as XFWM4 has. The way it is now, I stick with XFWM4.
All these options will most likely sound strange to the readers of this blog. It’s reasonable. GNU/Linux has done a lot of experimentation on interfaces, which if not as good looking as MacOSX’s, have implemented very useful tricks that I have not seen anywhere else. I would advise anyone here to give them a try, to get familiarized with those ideas, and then try to use an interface like OSX’s or Windows’.
P.S.: The menu bar on top, which so many mac users cherish and that I did praise once too, is a great idea initially, but not so much once you have it intereact with the rest of the desktop. Most GNU/Linux window managers implement a focus policy known as ‘sloppy focus’ — in other words, the focus follows the mouse pointer, without need to click –. This is very useful, but becomes a hell whenever you have also a detached menu bar, because most likely while travelling from the window to the bar you will pass over other windows, which in turn will change the menus to their own.
Also, although the fixed menu bar saves space and eases the interface because it is always placed in the same place, I think that all experienced users end up using keyboard shortcuts more than mouseclicks. So I would just do menu bars auto-hiding, or minimal.
Maximizing is a Windows-ism. It’s also a bad idea. I need to see what’s happening to my Desktop and need one-click access to it and other windows. Not maximising facilitates that.
If you’re the distractable type, just HIDE other applications. As a side benefit, that reduces system load thus improving foreground application responsiveness.
I don’t maximize my windows because I was a moron and bought mac os x.
By the way if you have windows and have many applications open, you still have 1 click access your desktop, 1 click access to anything open, 1 click access to your shortcuts (quick start), and 1 click access to everything else on your harddrive. It’s called the taskbar.
Maximized windows… I usually want to maximize. I am *not* saying it’s “better” to maximize and I’m not saying other people “should” maximize. But I often want to maximize and I really really want an easy way to do it! I came from Windows where it was easy to do and now I miss it.
Does anyone have a hack? I really really want a keyboard shortcut that maximizes the current window whatever it is. Again, I’m not saying my way is ‘right’ or better, but it sure is better for me. Any suggestions? And BTW I’m not enough of a programmer to figure this out myself.
I agree – no moral judgement here just have a limited attention span and a preference for one window at a time. Is there a way to get a full screen window on the MAC book? I’m lost with zoom/maximize language. I’m a neophyte and desperate for beginners lesson if anyone can help!
I have been using the mac forever. I never maximize the browser, email apps, or finder windows and always tend to have multiple open even when using tabbed browsing in safari.
On the other hand when I am using any design/video/audio applications I always maximize and need more room for all the palettes.
When I hide an application there are always 3-4 smaller browser, email, and finder windows floating on the dexktop…lets say I love expose, couldn’t function without it.
YES! I have a 17″ monitor and 15″ monitor on my PowerMac. Right now I have Safari maximized on the 17 thanks to an added FullScreen button and on the 15 I have iTunes sized to fill the screen. I often do several things at one but I usually make the windows as big as I can and use Expose to switch between the windows.
I find having lots of small windows visable at once just makes my screen look cluttered and is harder for me to find what I want. Adding a maximize button would help those that want it, and I fail to see how it would hurt those that don’t.
As for my current program taking up my whole screen being a “Windows Thing” I think you are suffering from the same narrow Microsoft brainwashed view you are accusing other of having.
When I started on PCs in 1982 with the Atari 400 Home Computer everything I did was full screen (TV screen even), I had no choice. I then moved to the Apple II, again everything is full screen. I liked the first Macs (I may be wrong but I think the first Mac OS had maximize) but could not afford them so when they stopped developing for the Apple II I switched to IBM Compatibles and DOS, everything was still full screen. Finally ten years after first getting a PC I run Windows 3.11 and can use multiple programs at once! I can still maximize if I want to and usually do since 800×600 and 15″ screens don’t give much real estate. I learn to hate Windows 3.11 and after falling in love with OS/2 I switched to it, yup I could maximize my windows there. OS/2 dies around 96 so I join the rest of the world in Windows where I stay until this year when I switch to Mac. Now you tell me that full screen is a “Windows” invention and that I have been using my computers wrong these past 25 years. Nope, not buying it.
On my MacBook, most everything ends up maximised. but on the mothership at home ( 24′ iMac!) having anything maximised is just daunting… a 24′ document is scary! I find my productivity is much higher on the iMac because I can have Safari, itunes, and 2 documents open at once without switching between! but then again, with exposé on my MacBook, its still so easy to switch between windows.. I love Mac OS X!
Every once in a while I’ll maximize something, but it happens *so* rarely as to be nonexistent. Why have all that whitespace in the way?